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The Member of the RA NA Delegation to OSCE PA Sargis Khandanyan gave a speech at the OSCE PA International Conference on Combating Corruption Defending Democracy: The Role of National Parliaments held in Nicosia.

The deputy noted:

“Dear colleagues, I would like to thank the House of Representatives of Cyprus for organizing this conference and our speakers for their remarks.

As Ms Charalambides mentioned in her opening remarks this is a platform to share good practices. I would like to talk about Armenia’s story of combating corruption during the past few years.

After the 2018 velvet revolution in Armenia the fight against corruption has been one of the key priorities of the new government within the democratic and security reforms agenda of the country. The parliaments elected after snap parliamentary elections in 2018 and 2021 of course have played an important role creating the institutional framework and necessary legislation for the policies to combat corruption.

The success of our policies is expressed in the most recent Corruption Perception Index report published by Transparency International. The report notes. “Armenia is a success story of the Corruption Perception Index in the last five years, improving 14 points since 2017 to a score of 49. Mass protests in 2018 forced out an entrenched political elite in favor of a reform-minded government. Armenia has since expanded civil liberties, paving the way for more sustainable civic engagement and accountability.”

I would like to elaborate on what has made this assessment possible on the institutional and policy-making level.

First, the National Security Strategy of Armenia adopted in 2020 clearly identifies corruption as a national security threat.

Second, The Armenian Government adopted the Anti-Corruption Strategy of Armenia in 2019. It has 3 general directions: prevention of corruption, counteraction of corruption, and raising public awareness.

As a significant step in direction of prevention of corruption the Commission to Prevent Corruption was created in 2019. This is an independent body the commissioners of which are elected by the Parliament, but the candidates for commissioners undergo a very competitive competition procedure. Quite a wide range of public officials and their relatives submit a detailed annual declaration about their income and property to the committee. Starting from January 2022 the public officials also submit declarations about their annual expenses. Starting this year the political parties are also obligated to declare their financial sources, property, and expenses annually. The Commission to Prevent Corruption also checks the integrity of the candidates for judges and justices.

Within the scope of counteraction of corruption new institutions were created. The anti-corruption committee was established. The head and the investigators of which are selected through competition, who also undergo an integrity check procedure.

The anti-corruption court was created and soon we will have judges specialized in corruption related cases.

A new anti-corruption division in the Prosecutor’s Office was created, the prosecutors of which and their candidates thereof undergo integrity check and are selected through competition.

Hence, Armenia has already created a full chain of institutions that examine and fight against corruption from investigation to court rulings, and this gives us confidence that with these institutional capacities and the political will we have we will become more successful in combating corruption in upcoming years.” Sargis Khandanyan concluded.